This petition was submitted during the 2015-2017 parliament
Rejected petition Stop prioritising female dress standards over their education.
Students face punishment for skirts that are not knee length, wearing trousers or skirts that are 'too tight' and wearing blouses that show their shoulders. They are given detentions, isolation and sent home as opposed to being in lessons. What a person wears does not affect their ability to learn.
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The majority of students who are penalised for their clothing are female due to reasons such as 'it will distract male students.' Instead going to their lesson, many schools prioritise punishing the student for their uniform by keeping them out of lesson so they 'don't distract other learners'. It is understood that an aim of having uniform is professionalism but the pressures placed on young women to dress a certain way if they 'value their education' is unfair. It is often hard to find comfortable and fitting uniform within the school standards without paying high prices. It would be beneficial to young girls all to show them that what they wear is not more important than what they learn.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.
Decisions about school uniform are for a school's governing body and management to take.
You could ask your school's governing body to take the action you want to see in your school.
The Department for Education does produce guidance for schools:
You could start a petition asking for the Government to change the guidance it gives to schools.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.